A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for tracking individuals through a zone or a plurality of zones, requiring in a preferred embodiment that the individuals check in with the system to provide periodic status, location or compliance data.
B. Description of the Prior Art
In the post Sep. 11, 2001 America, there is a growing concern with the ability to track individuals including foreign visitors to the United States during their stay. Present processes have very limited automation and do not provide sufficient capabilities to initially verify an individuals intentions pre grant of entry, or the ability to track individuals post a countries'/prisons'/buildings'/etc. grant of entry stage. As such, enforcement authorities do not have readily accessible information available to commence location of an individual. The ICEE system provides a trail (depending on the governing authorities' selection of applied biometrics as well as check-in frequency assigned to the individual) of the individual's movements post granting of access, such that a valid name, address, phone number, picture, speech pattern, etc. is immediately available to commence location of an individual.
There does not appear to currently be any extensive, integrated system for tracking an individual or group of individuals from the time that they desire entry into a particular area or zone, track the individuals through voluntary check-in or through devices known or unknown to the individual, through the period of exit. And in the case of extended visas, it is not known until the end of the visa period whether the visitor intends to comply with the visa, at which point it may be too late to find the entrenched or hidden visitor. The present method and system described by the present invention provides such capability combined with the ability to track the status of the individual including outstanding warnings or alerts on the individual, including failure to comply with the voluntary check in requirements.